Road Trip - East coast and Texas

Fellow TWers,

I'm planning a 6 week long road trip all along the east coast beginning in October, from Maine all the way down to Florida and then spending some time checking out Texas. The whole purpose of this trip is for me and the wife to find a place we want to live. Got laid off and convinced the wife to quit her job so we can leave Colorado. Its not what it used to be and way to expensive to live here without the pay increasing following the housing price explosion. When a 3 bedroom house in Greeley costs more than 300k you know its time to get out. Greeley is Colorado's shithole(the town literally smells like shit), nobody wants to live there. The legalization of pot also brought in the riff raff from other states so crime has skyrocketed. Basically were ready to get out town for good.

So far were planning on hitting up New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine to check out the fall colors. We'll checkout the Green Mountain area of Vermont heading up to Burlington. Then head over to the White Mountain area of NH heading down to Concord and swinging over to Portland Maine. Ive only been as far as Portland into Maine so if @Noelie84 or anyone has suggestions to go further into Maine or other areas to check out please let me know.

I have family in Mass so I'll be spending about a week throughout the state from Springfield to Boston and hopefully a few days down on Cape Cod. Hopefully Ill be there to grab some food at Arnolds in Orleans, loved going to that place growing up. @Pugga anything to checkout in Boston?

My wife has some family in Jersey and she really wants to checkout NYC in the fall so I have a feeling we'll be there for a few days. But I wont be taking the truck into nyc, it wont fit anywhere being a limo with a RTT on the roof rack.

After that I don't have much planned between Jersey and North Carolina. So hopefully someone from Virginia and Maryland sees this and has a suggestion.

North Carolina were gonna check out the Raleigh area again (came out to NC in May to see Raleigh and Wilmington). Really liked the state although Wilmington was very diverse compared to Colorado. There was a really nice historical house for sale listed at 500k next door to a crack house. Have some friends who moved out from Ft Collins to Wilmington and they both said that its not safe to walk the 4 blocks home from the bars. My favorite part about North Carolina is Bojangles, I'm tempted to move there just so I can eat bojangles a few times a week.

South Carolina, not much planned so hopefully @scottalot has some pointers. Plan is to look at Myrtle beach and Charleston.

Georgia, planning on spending some time in Savannah before heading up to Atlanta. Have a friend in Marietta so at least a day or two in the Atlanta area. Maybe @zacharypaul89 has something to see in Georgia?

Florida, Going to drive down the Atlantic side and stop down in the keys for hopefully a few days. Spent 2 weeks down there this spring and it was awesome. Then head up the Gulf side when heading to Texas. We really liked Ft Myers on a previous trip so I'll spend some time there and Naples. We're going to take our time in Florida because we love the weather. After spending 2 years in North Dakota I'm done with -30F and 40mph winds all winter.

Texas, Going to spend a night in Houston with a friend, definitely do not want to live in Houston. Spent a month down there for training at work and driving anywhere was a nightmare. But want to camp along the gulf coast at least down in the South Padre island area. Im sure theres more near Corpus Christi and Galveston. Still researching all that. Then spend some time in San Antonio and to check out the river walk, @TashcomerTexas maybe there is something to do in SA that you'd suggest. Have an open job offer in the San Antonio area so I check out the area for a couple days. Then head up to Austin and experience the Boulder of Texas. After that we might stop in Dallas/Ft Worth, maybe. After that We'll just head home cause there is not much in OK or KS to warrant a stop.

Hopefully anyone reading has any input. Our road trip is pretty wide open so if you have any suggestions on places to hit up that weren't listed, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Louisiana; please let me know if there is something I should checkout.



TLDR: If anyone has any suggestions on places to see, restaurants, camping areas (I'll be using my RTT for a good portion of the trip) or anything to do while traveling along the east coast and Texas please let me know. I'm hoping to do some beach camping in the truck in the southern east coast states and Texas.

 

I hear there's not much noteworthy in South Carolina anyway, I'd just skip it completely if I were you


@scottalot


When are you planning on hitting Maine? That'll have a lot to do with where I suggest you go, honestly.

 

Haha noted about SC.

It'll be the first or second week of october. Hoping to check the colors before it starts to snow up north.

 

Haha, any reason I should avoid dirty myrtle? Never been so just curious.
I've been to Charleston/folly beach on a short weekend trip a few years ago in the dead of summer so I know what you mean by heat and humidity. Is there anything more inland to see in SC or is that just @JimBeam territory that I should avoid?

 

Good time to be in this area. Nice and crisp in the mornings and evenings but plenty comfortable during the day. You'll be missing most of the agricultural fairs if you show up around that time, but we generally still have lots of foliage. And it's prime apple-picking time, too. Plus the tourists have mostly gone home, so Route 1 isn't (as much of) a parking lot if you wanted to do some coastal driving to see the ocean, etc.

 

If your coming down to Cape Cod, your more than welcome to hop on a ferry and come over to the Vineyard for a day or two... its great to check out, not so much for buying anything house-wise October is a great month though, less expensive and way less touristy

 

When it comes to San Antonio depends what you're looking to do. Of course there's the river walk- plenty of restaurants and bars down there. The pearl brewery area is a really nice place to check out, la cantera is an outdoor shopping mall on the north side. If you're feeling adventurous there's always six flags, or you could go on a leg killer hike at Government Canyon Natural Reserve on the NW side by helotes. And plenty more. By that time I'm sure it'll be around 80s.

 

When in NC, check out the Asheville and surrounding areas. The tallest mountains east of Colorado are here. Great camping and lots of good eats.

 

Ahh gotcha, Ill probably just pass through myrtle.. maybe stop at the local walmart to take it all in. The small town portion of SC sounds pretty interesting, I'll have to look into some interior SC areas to check out.

Well thats good to hear the roads will be less packed. Would you suggest staying manly in southern Maine or does northern Maine have something that needs to be explored? Do the orchards actually let you pick apples or are they just very fresh at farmers markets?

I will defiantly look into taking the ferry. I've only been to Nantucket and I was 8 so don't remember much of it other than the ferry taking forever. My aunt has a cape house in Eastham so it wouldn't too far if just for the day. I couldn't even imagine how much a house would cost out there, even the cape prices were crazy.

 

Ct is an expensive pass-thru state. Nothing to see here.

 

Do it... if you need info, just PM me.. I'd love to show you guys around. Then, when I road trip out to CO, you can show me all the good wheelin/campin spots

Ferry's about 1/2hr on our new boats, 45min on the oldies

 

Sweet thanks for the tips. Is there an area of SA I should avoid?, I heard that North San Antonio is where most people would want to live. Do you know much about South Padre Island? I saw they have a few places to camp on the beach, I think I even saw a tw thread about a texas group camping out there.

I heard that Ashville is very similar to Ft Collins but smaller so that would be great to see because 10 years ago Ft Collins was a great place to live. Now its too crowded and takes almost an hour to go from one side to another. One great thing about NC is the BBQ and breweries. I was really impressed with the Raleigh area, felt like a nice clean small city.

 

lol, at least you're honest.

Right on, thanks man. Im guessing by the size of Martha's Vineyard there is not much for camping? Ooo 30 minutes, I could deal with that ferry ride.

Haha definitely, that is one great thing about Colorado, plenty of wheeling and camping.

 

Yeah like any major city I'd say the west and south sides. Really I only venture inside loop 410 whenever I need to go downtown and such. I'd agree with that statement, very subtle area here on the northside - you could check out stone oak on the NE side too but around here is a traffic nightmare.

Yeah south padre is a great place for camping on the beach. I think they were saying past access 5 along those lines is where the crowds will die out, don't quote me on that though. I usually like to bring the kayak out there.

 

Id go ahead and take the 130 toll road and skip around Austin. Use that day to further explore north Texas.

North San Antonio? Is that New Braunfels now, or San Marcos?

 

Lol, most of them let you pick your own. I think they actually prefer it, since they don't have to pay people to do it that way, haha!

Northern Maine definitely has some very interesting stuff, but only if you feel like driving an extra 5 hours or so from Portland to see it, honestly.

 

What do you mean? It's still San Antonio, just the northside of town.

 

Thanks for the pointers, Im sure I'll figure it out once Im down there. Im gonna bring my fishing stuff along for the Florida keys so I'll probably pick up a Texas license and give surf fishing a shot.

Interesting, I'll definitely look into a few orchards and pick some apples. Im sure it'll help balance out all the lobster my wife wants to get while in Maine.

Gotcha, Im thinking we might head up to Rockport along the 1 and that might be as far north as we go.